Ghana's Independence day: 57 and Held For Ransom

Ransom,noun: a consideration paid or demanded for the release of someone or something from captivity. (Webster's dictionary)

Ghana marks 57 years since Independence from British colonial rule today. Every year, I try to write something reflective of our challenges on our birthday, in the hopes that we can be clear-sighted and improve by the time our next birthday rolls around.

Ghana has been kidnapped. Our whole developmental process is being held for ransom in the sum of millions of dollars annually. It's a sad state of affairs, and we are all aware of it. We are all upset and angry at being held for ransom, just like every victim of a kidnapping feels. Who is holding us for ransom? We are.

We claim to love our country and complain about things going wrong. Yet, we are the people holding our own development captive. Whenever we pay a bribe to an official, whenever we demand a bribe, whenever we spend our working time on Facebook, whenever we do not attend to customers or patients because we can't be bothered, every time we increase the cost of a good or service without due cause, every time we refuse to pay our taxes, we are holding our 'beloved' country for ransom.

Notice that beloved is in quotes above, because nothing we do indicates that we love our country. The politician at the top is only concerned about lining his pockets with our money, and unfortunately so are we. We refuse to sacrifice even the smallest of comforts for our development, but we complain endlessly. Our leaders are short-sighted because many of us are short-sighted.

Our health-care professionals hold us for ransom everyday, and unfortunately the ransom is usually our lives. The training of nurses and doctors in Ghana is HEAVILY subsidized with tax-payer's money, just to make sure that people who cannot afford to pay full fees can go into these professions. We even go to the extent of paying nurses in training an allowance every month (GASP!) just for being in nursing school. Yet, after graduation, they refuse to serve the same tax-payers whose money trained them. Doctors refuse to attend to patients routinely in order to demand for more pay. I personally have nothing against fighting for better conditions of service, but in order to even the playing field, perhaps medical students should pay the full fees for their medical education. Since our health proffessionals want to be paid similar amounts as what those outside the country are paid, why don't we save our hard-earned tax-payer's money so you can pay for your own medical education? Who cares if you have to take loans to pay those fees? That's what doctors in many other countries had to do in school. Besides, why should we care if you don't care enough to take care of the lives you pledged to save, and were trained with OUR money to save? What is good for the goose is good for the gander.

The hospitals some of you work in don't even have stand-by generators for emergencies. Basic facilities are absent in many health care facilities.You're going on strike and refusing to attend to patients because you're earning 1000% more than the average Ghanaian instead of 9000% more. Why don't you actually FIGHT for some of these basic things?

I do not mean to turn this post into a lambasting, but frankly, enough is enough! Why don't we stop our endless griping and complaining and ACTUALLY do something for a change? Something that is actually UNSELFISH and truly PATRIOTIC? Like finding the missing baby from KATH so we can all move on. How that happened is still beyond me, but unfortunately, a baby is missing from one of the largest hospitals in Ghana(GASP! again).

And just in case you're still looking for some leaders to blame for our      issues, don't bother. They're too busy fighting to be paid 10000% more  than the average Ghanaian, you know, just like you. They're also  fighting for important things like appearing on videos to sing Tweaa!

I think we all need to take a cue from the many inspiring people I know making a difference. Kwabena Danso. Ato Ulzen-Appiah. Ekow Mensah. Many many more of such names that I cannot mention due to time and space giving up their comforts to help develop young people and our nation. Thank you for making a difference. I take my cue from you, and I hope others will too.

Ghana's nurses

Author's Statement:I am probably going to step on a few toes with this post, but the truth is the truth and needs to be said.I do not believe in sugar-coating, and so I apologise in advance for my bluntness and if I offend anyone.Also, this post does not imply that there are no good nurses or teachers.There are, and things are slowly changing to train better teachers and nurses.If you are one of the good ones,please keep it up and stay focused on helping others.

Akosua was pregnant with her first child.It had been a difficult pregnancy to say the least, and she was just about ready to have the baby and be done with it.As she lay in the hospital bed catching her breath and waiting for the next wave of contractions, she prayed again that she would walk safely out of the hospital with her child healthy.She tried not to be afraid, but it was difficult especially since the woman in the bed next to hers had died during her delivery just a couple of hours before then.Considering how long she had been in labour,she was very afraid of what could happen to her and the child if she didn't deliver soon.Another wave of contractions hit her, and she fought to endure the pain.This time though, the pain would not stop and just kept increasing in magnitude.She gritted her teeth and tried not to scream or cry, since the nurses had told her to endure the pain when she arrived.She tried her best, but the pain was unbearable and she couldn't help but scream.She kept screaming and screaming, then called to the nurse on duty to please help her.
The nurse on duty was bored out of her mind.She was on the phone talking to her friend about the new doctor when the lady in  the ward began screaming and calling to her.That was so annoying!Did she not know she was making noise and disturbing her phone call?Besides, she had already warned this patient to keep from making noise.This was just labour, having a baby, no big deal.Why was she being such a wimp and making noise?Muttering under her breath and complaining to her colleague nurse (who was browsing Facebook), she stalked over to Akosua to give her a piece of her mind.

This is just a hypothetical scenario that happens everyday in hospitals throughout Ghana.The reality is far worse than this, and it makes my skin crawl to remember some of these stories told to me by friends who have had to be hospitalised or visit the hospital for routine procedures.Why do we hear such horror stories all the time?Why are nurses treating patients without any compassion or professionalism?
I have a simple theory, and its my personal opinion.You're allowed to agree or disagree, but this is my opinion.The educational system in Ghana is responsible.
There are 4 tiers of high school graduates: the top 20-40% will go to college/university,next 40-80% will go to polytechnics,the next 10% will go to a nursing or a teacher training school.If you're considered at the very bottom, then you don't get to continue with a formal education at all.
Consider this.You are unable to get good grades in your Science and Math classes, but your only options are to become a nurse, a teacher  or to consider a career in fashion or something informal.
How can a country commit their whole healthcare system into the hands of students who were unable to grasp even the basic concepts of Science?How can we trust them to take of us when they are forced into this profession because they have limited options?Why then do we complain that our nurses are unprofessional and lack compassion?
We need to decide as a nation that we want excellent students in the nursing profession.We need to set the standard so high, that nursing students will be selected as if they were medical doctors.We shouldn't be gambling with the lives of the helpless and weak in our society by simply training academically inept individuals to run our hospitals and clinics.We need to remember people like Akosua, and be intentional about the kind of people we allow near our loved ones when they're sick.People who actually WANT to be nurses, who have some compassion and sympathy for those in pain, who actually know what 10cc of a drug is, and who understand that they aren't just working for money,they are helping people!Until we fix this problem with our educational system, I do not foresee a better breed of nurses being produced than we already have..and complain about.

Educated Illiterates:Whose fault?

This post is going to be quite controversial,but I try to tell the truth no matter what.If you don't agree with me,comment and let me know.Better still,write a rebuttal and tag me.I'll read it,I promise!
Currently,Ghana is considered a lower middle income earning country,which means we are in that weird place where we aren't considered dirt poor and in need of serious aid,but are still really quite broke.When I saw this classification,I immediately thought of several things,some of which I shared in an earlier post on this blog.You can read that post here if you missed it.

Most recently though,I have begun to question this so called status again in light of certain observations I have made about graduates in Ghana.I don't think anyone will quibble with me over the fact we have issues with our educational system,but when I look at the caliber of people produced from the various universities and tertiary institutions in the form of 'graduates',I begin to wonder if its just an issue with our educational system or there's also some personal responsibility involved.

Since I am from a science background,let me talk about that for a minute.How many graduates of the various science programs in universities in Ghana are actually equipped for real hands-on scientific work?The final year research we are made to do is unsatisfactory, and to top that off most of us are usually too busy cramming for exams to read anything in the form of scientific literature.Most Science grads do not even know what a publication is,have no idea how to read and digest the information or how to use that information for their own purposes in a legal manner.Maybe I'm being too critical,but when even Masters and PhD degree students are no better,there is cause for concern.

Let's move away from Science shall we?Let's talk about the Master's Craze in Ghana.Everyone graduating from the university decides to pursue a Masters degree either because they can't find a job or everyone else is doing it so they also want to do it.A classic example is the thousands of MBAs awarded each year,not to students who have actually learnt anything and will be better for it(with very few exceptions) but to students that have been rushed through some classes and exams,made to cram more than they did in high school or college and then probably paid to have someone write a thesis for them(sorry if I offend anyone here).Is the Masters degree a simple extension of college now with the cramming and memorization?How do we expect to produce any kind of equipped grads with this kind of educational attitude?All the schools seem to be interested in now is money,and most of our graduates are apparently not circumspect enough in their reasoning and rush to do all these programs.I understand that there is a shortage of jobs,but is a Masters degree really a fix?Do you need another degree attained with cramming and memorization  to get an entry level job?

This is such an appalling situation,much like the monopolisation of medical schools in Ghana by the rich and by certain families(I didn't even know that medicine was now a family inheritance..smh).Before even considering a Masters degree,you need to sit and decide what you want to do with your career.How is an MBA necessary if all you ever wanted to do was teach for example(unless you're going to teach business or run a company)?Why do a PhD if you want to just be a lawyer?I understand that because most of us think that our options are limited,we decide to just do whatever is available,but if there's anything education was supposed to have done,it was to open our eyes to all of the opportunities we do have.If our education failed to do that,then it is up to us to educate ourselves by reading more and being more open to other options apart from those everyone else sees.Most of us after graduation never even bother to read anything anymore.Not textbooks,not newspapers or personal development literature,not even novels.How do we expect to be educated when we will not  do the basics ourselves and read?Or has our educational system made reading so boring and not fun that we can't see it as a helpful and fun activity?

This is  what makes a graduate educated,in my opinion,the ability to see and utilise opportunities other people have not seen or utilised, the will and desire to solve problems and not just get jobs and make money.Let's stop blaming the system,because we all know its bad, and actually do something on ourselves.After all,the same educational system has produced exceptional graduates.What makes you unable to be an exception too?Until we begin to see education as more than a pathway to get a job on the part of students and as a business on the part of schools,we will keep producing graduates who are actually illiterate,unskilled and unprepared to face and solve actual real world problems and will compound the problems we already do have as a country.Enough said!